How Restaurants Are Avoiding Waste
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report 2024, 1.05 billion tons of food waste were generated globally, equating to 132 kilograms per person. Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) reported these staggering figures in a recent article by Jose Chaves. “Restaurants and other food services are a big part of this problem—contributing to 28% of this waste, or one-fifth of all the food available to consumers, ends up as waste,” he writes. “Not only is this wasteful, but it also hurts restaurant profits. Every dollar spent on wasted food is money down the drain.”
However, according to Chaves, restaurants are starting to step up and tackle the waste problem. Not only does this benefit consumers and business margins, but it is also healthier for the environment as well.
Here is how restaurants are making a difference to avoid unnecessary or excessive waste:
- Utilizing technology to track waste and make changes. “Many restaurants now use technology to track food waste and manage inventory. Smart inventory management systems help chefs see what ingredients are being wasted the most. Some systems even predict how much food a restaurant needs based on past orders, helping to avoid food waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions because less food in the trash means fewer problems for the environment,” Chaves writes. He recalls a café he worked for that cut waste by 25% after tracking it through a simple app.
- Menu adjustments. By careful menu planning, chefs are contributing to waste reduction in restaurants too. Chaves says, “For example, they use the same ingredients in multiple dishes so that nothing goes bad before it’s used up. Others get creative by using food scraps—like turning vegetable peels into crispy chips or making soups from leftover bones.”
- Portion control isn’t just for weight management. Similarly, chefs are serving up smaller dishes that are more appropriately proportioned to curb waste—and waists! “Portion control strategies and behavioral nudges play a major role in food waste reduction in the restaurant sector. It’s also important to remember that wasting less food means there’s more food available for people who need it, helping with food security,” Chaves reminds.
These are just some of the ways that restaurants are contributing to waste management solutions. While these methods are useful to ease the environmental hazards of waste, they are particularly important to restaurant budgets as well. Most importantly, managing food waste maintains a human-centric approach to the restaurant business, taking care to provide for guests with high-quality, thoughtful foods, while also caring for others who may be in need.
Richard Weil, principal and owner of National Restaurant Consultants (NRC) is a firm advocate of waste and portions management. As a professional food service consultant, Richard and NRC works with dozens of operators throughout the country and provide advice and suggestions as to portions as a key and critical element of not only the right thing to do, but as the article above suggests, very helpful to reduce cost of goods. Take the time to look at the servers and busers removal of plates that may indicate over portioning as well as the amount of to go product that is requested. This process should not compromise with the operators brand, but merely compliment.